The Evergreen Game

The Evergreen Game — die immergrüne Partie — was named by Wilhelm Steinitz, who in 1879 wrote that it was “evergreen in the laurel wreath of the great German master.” It was Anderssen’s second classic, played eight months after the Immortal Game and against a different style of opponent.

The opening is the Evans Gambit, the most romantic of all sacrifice openings. Anderssen offers his b-pawn, then his d-pawn, then his queen on move 21, all to force the mate that arrives on move 24. As in the Immortal, the final mating piece is a bishop on e7, but this time it is the dark-squared bishop and the mate is on f8.

The queen sacrifice on move 21 is the game’s most-studied move. White could have continued attacking with several alternatives; Anderssen chose the line that produced the cleanest mate.

The combination

After 19.Rad1, Black plays 19…Qxf3, which would lose the game to any number of white moves. Anderssen finds the prettiest: 20.Rxe7+ Nxe7 21.Qxd7+!! Kxd7 22.Bf5+ Ke8 23.Bd7+ Kf8 24.Bxe7#. The queen sacrifice on d7 is the kind of move that nineteenth-century players said could only be conceived by a god — though Anderssen, who could be self-deprecating, called it “a small joke.”

Game record

This game between Adolf Anderssen and Jean Dufresne was played at the Casual game in Berlin in 1852. The opening was the Evans Gambit (ECO C52). The game lasted 24 moves, ending with White winning. It is part of the nineteenth-century chess record.

Opening context

The Evans Gambit (ECO C52) belongs to the open group of the Encyclopedia of Chess Openings. The opening sequence runs 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.b4 Bxb4, after which the game enters its specific theoretical line. ECO classification group C covers a span of roughly 100 different openings, of which C52 is one entry on the tree.